Condemn Me for Eternity
by Air Angel
Summary: AU After an accident, Kagome finds herself thrown into a situation which she thought only existed in her grandfather's senile old mind. What can she do now where one little mistake by her could possibly mean her death or even the end of the world?
1. Rough Start

Disclaimer: I don't own the IY cast but this story it mine and if anyone steals it, they will receive a painful surprise. . . ; 

AN: Ok this wasn't the new story I was planning on making but sudden inspiration made me write this first chapter instead of the first chapter to my real other story. Hope you like, please R&R!

Condemn Me for Eternity

Chapter 1 - Rough Start

"Hey are you going to my party tonight?"

"Sorry, can't. I'm busy."

Eri rested her head on her hand. "What now? You never have free time anymore Kagome."

"Working and than I have to study for a math test," I said sighing, "After all that I think I'll probably just want to put my legs up on something and lay back to watch a sitcom or a movie. . .or something like that."

"Yeah I almost forgot that you moved into an apartment. Is the rent still killer?" Yuka asked taking a bite out of some bread-sandwich-thing that she had probably bought at the cafeteria due to its lack of identity.

I nodded. No use denying it, I was barely able to keep up my rental payments with my job and I really didn't feel like going back home to my mother, brother, and grandpa. They have enough money problems as it is.

"Kagome you really need to spend some time out. You can't keep studying and working all the time." Eri said pointing a French fry to my nose.

"I think Kagome needs a good boyfriend to keep her in the land of the living" Ayumi added.

"Look, I don't study and work ALL the time. I just don't have the will to go partying anymore. I really need to get these last credits in good grades or else I'll never get into a university! I don't want to keep my dead end job for the rest of my life. I also don't need a boyfriend Ayumi, maybe after I graduate or maybe even never. It's a waste of time."

"You've been saying that ever since you started high school! Listen, you really need to loosen up again so after you finish work I want you to promise that you'll come to the party. Meet people and maybe you'll find a guy there to."

I looked at Eri in the eyes and sighed. If I didn't go on my own free will, she would go and drag me over. "Fine but I'm working late tonight so if it's over when I get there you are dead. DEAD!"

"You won't regret it! Some of the hottest guys around are going to be there!" Yuka exclaimed happily.

I glanced at my watch before gathering my stuff and standing up. "I got to go or else I'll be late for my next class. Plus I'm pretty sure if I don't go I'll be failing miserably."

Ayumi laughed "Don't worry about your grades Kagome, don't you remember the time we signed up for that figures class thinking we would just be drawing bowls of fruit?"

"Don't remind me." I mumbled. I REALLY didn't expect to see some guy walk into the class the first day wearing a robe than discarding it to show his. . . 'full potential'. "I'll see you all later!" I sprinted towards a garbage can before heading off to school.

(-)(-)(-)

"Kagome can you grab the next table? I got my hands full making some more coffee."

I rolled my eyes, what was so hard about pouring water into a coffee machine and letting it run until it was done. "Sure." Grabbing a clipboard I headed over to a table with two people sitting in it. "Welcome, can I take your order?"

"A Sprite and a Pepsi please."

"Alright. I'll be right back." I walked over to the cooler grabbing the pops while glaring at Hojo, my co-worker. Instead of pouring the water into the machine he just so happened to pour it on himself making half the costumers laugh. I gave the drinks to the costumers before heading over to the idiot who just stood standing there completely soaked.

Of course, what you plan in your head never comes out they way you want it to. I ended up slipping on some of the water that had spilled on the floor making me slide into the counter and land on my ass. I swore under my breath and walked over to the bathroom to clean myself up.

"Stupid idiot and his stupid problem with holding a stupid jug of water." I mumbled to myself as I was rung the water out of my uniform. I'm going to have to have a talk with my boss after I was dry again. Never EVER make me work with another klutz. I'm bad enough myself.

Suddenly the lights burst and I heard screaming and some crashing from the café. 'Oh, if this is some stupid prank, whoever did it is going to pay! I am not in the mood for a god damn joke right now.' I thought while my eyes adjusted to the dark. I covered my ears when the sound got louder. A few minutes later it stopped I walked towards the door and swung it open expecting to see some guys trying to raid the cashier while laughing their heads off. Instead I found complete darkness and over turned chairs and tables everywhere.

I panicked. If my boss came downstairs from his loft above the café I was going to be fired for sure because of this mess.

Quickly I sprinted to the cashier to make sure that none of the money had been stolen. Halfway there I tripped over what I thought was a chair or table leg. Unfortunately when I sat up and decided to glare at the offending leg it wasn't a wooden one I found.

I bit my lip to keep myself from screaming and I crawled backwards until my back hit the surface of an overturned table. I looked up and saw another body hanging beside my head. I trembled as I examined the body. The skin was wrinkled and looked like it was decaying rapidly from the colours of green and grey it was turning. The eyes were gone and its mouth hung open showing me a disgustingly black tongue hanging out of it.

'What the hell happened!?!,' my mind raced as I began to crawl away again. That was before I heard a noise from where I had come from. It sounded like a very loud scurrying. I kept my eyes in that direction as I slowly continued to crawl away.

'Maybe if I could make it to the door everything would be ok.'

Well that was what I thought before I felt breathing on my back. Screaming I grabbed whatever I could with my hands, which happened to be a salt shaker and a spoon, and threw it at whatever was behind me and made a mad dash towards the door.

The high pitched scream it made when I heard the glass from the salt shaker shatter on it made me run faster. I was almost there when the monster got in front of me. I gave a quick look at it and frowned. It was like a giant spider. I ran between its legs to get to the other side where the door was, scratching my arm against one leg when it moved above me. It stomped around above me making the whole café shake and me duck for cover while I continued to run.

Unfortunately, this time I really did trip and fall over a chair leg and landed on the floor not far from the exit. My arm stung as I struggled to stand up but no sooner did I sit up did I just find the mouth of the spider opening up above me.

I closed my eyes and waited for death. Maybe this was all just a dream, a really, really, really, really, REALLY BAD DREAM! GOD DAMNIT WAKE UP!

That's when a bright light turned on making the spider step back, blinded.

I squinted for my eyes to adjust to seeing light again when I heard the door swing open behind me and some people walk in.

"This is it?" A guy said. I still couldn't see their faces.

"I guess so, I thought it'd be something harder." A female voice said.

"Keh, whatever. Sango get the survivor out of here. I'll finish it off." The first voice spoke again.

"Why not me?" Another male.

"Cause from what I see, the survivor is a girl in a short uniform skirt Miroku."

The light began to flicker and I heard the first man swear when it went out. I could hear the spider regain its senses and I crawled quickly to the door. I heard a loud shout and I was picked up by someone just in time to see the spider crash into where I had been sitting. I was than pushed into the arms of another person.

"Don't worry" the girl said pulling me with her out the door. "Everything is alright."

I heard a loud screech behind us as I was told to sit down in a nearby car. Once I got inside I was out like a light.

(-)(-)(-)

RIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNG

I grabbed my alarm clock off my drawer beside my bed and stuffed it under my pillow. It didn't help much so I just turned it off after a couple of minutes. I got up and walked towards my bathroom door. 'That was some dream' I thought as I stepped inside and looked in the mirror.

I gasped when I saw myself dressed in my work uniform instead of my pajamas which usually consisted of a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. There was a bandage wrapped around my upper right arm. I quickly unraveled the wrapping to see a long cut across my arm. I poked it a bit before hissing and wrapping my arm back up. It really hurt. 'How did I get back to my apartment anyways?' I thought as I quickly changed into a pair of jeans and a long sleeve shirt to cover my wounded arm.

I walked around my apartment for an hour inspecting everything to see if anything was misplaced. I gave up when my phone started ringing. I cautiously picked it up.

"KAGOME WHERE WERE YOU YESTURDAY NIGHT!?!!" I heard Eri scream through my receiver.

"Uh. . ."

"DON'T 'UH' ME! YOU SAID YOU WOULD COME!!!"

"Listen Eri, could you get Ayumi and Yuka than come over here to my apartment. I need some help."

"What for?"

I sighed. "On second thought, don't come here. Just get Ayumi and Yuka than meet me at Phantas Café. That's where I work, remember? I have to check something out."

"You better have a good excuse for not coming when we get there."

I hung up the phone and quickly ran into my room. I stuffed my uniform into a bag and grabbed my keys before heading out. I walked to the elevator but it was going to slow so I opted to run down the staircase instead.

Phanta Café was only 2 blocks away from my apartment so it didn't take long to get there. It also didn't take long for me to realize that I was in need of a new job. The Café was a wreck. Windows were broken and the tables from yesterday didn't even resemble tables now.

I began to walk inside when I heard some talking from within. I walked around the back and used my 'workers' key to get in. I silently padded through the storage room and opened the door slightly to see two people sitting at the counter.

"This place actually had good coffee to," I recognized the voice as the second man from yesterday. What was his name? Mi-something? "Why do they always pick the good places to destory?"

"Well it's not like we had a choice, according to the report the owner of the Café was a Satanist. He was trying to do some kind of ceremony." The woman named Sango I think.

"Oh great, did he die so we don't have to live with his screw-ups again? I miss my coffee."

"Will you shut up about the coffee?! This is serious Miroku!" Ah. . . so his name was Miroku.

"I was being serious! This was where I always got my morning coffee from! Without it I'm nothing!"

"You weren't anything to begin with."

"Ahh but Sango that's mean."

There was silence for a moment before I heard a loud slap. "YOU PERVERT!"

"Ahh. . .but the pain is worth it my love."

"Idiot."

I started to laugh but caught myself. I didn't need to be caught by these weirdoes. They actually believed my boss was a Satanist! He may have been crazy at times but he was not that freaky.

"So where's Inuyasha anyways?"

"Last I saw him he was taking that girl that we saved home. I don't know how he did that though. Afterall, we don't know where she lives."

"I went through her pockets to find a driver's license."

"And that would help how?"

"Well I know her age."

He knows my age?!? What is he, some kind of psycho stalker?!

"Argh, WHY AM I PARTNERED WITH IDIOTS!?"

I heard the door open. "Who you calling an idiot?" It must've been that Inuyasha guy.

"I was just saying. . ."

"Wait a sec Sango, there is someone else here."

I froze. Oh shit how did he know? I mean he did come through the front, not the back so HOW? Than I heard some other talking coming from outside.

"Where is Kagome? Telling us to come meet her and she's not even here!" I heard Eri complain.

"Maybe she decided to take a shower before coming." Ayumi, the ever stupid one.

"But she made it sound like it was important!"

"Well one thing could be that she obviously doesn't have a job anymore. Just look at the Café. It wasn't like this a few days ago when I came." That being Yuka.

"Whatever let's go wait in the store across the street. They sell great clothes."

It was silent again and I began to feel a bit nervous. I tried to slip away and close the door to meet up with Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi but the door squeaked and less than a second later I was met with three pairs of eyes staring at me from my crouch on the ground.

"Uh. . .Hi?" I smiled sheepishly.


	2. Paranoia

WHOOSH! I've updated twice in two days! Anyways, I hope you enjoy and remember to R&R! 

Condemn me for Eternity

Chapter 2 – Paranoia

I acted like everything was normal and I stood up and dusted invisible dust off my shirt. "Well will you look at the time! I'm late to meet up with some people, if you'll excuse me. . ." I turned and tried to walk as quickly as I could to the back door but one of the people had grabbed my arm.

"You're that chick from yesterday aren't you?"

I smiled brightly, still not facing them. When in trouble, always deny. "Nope I have no idea who you are talking about. I wasn't here yesterday when this place got trashed by some giant, crazy spider thing and I don't have a large gash on my arm to prove it!" Ok so I'm not good a lying.

I was surprised when I felt the grip on my arm loosen, "Whatever, just get the hell out of here."

I'm not sure what possessed me to do it but I turned around to see what those people looked like up close. A gasp escaped my mouth. The guy who had been the one to grab me (which by his voice I figured was Inuyasha) had amber eyes, silver hair, and to top it off a pair of snowy white dog ears on the top of his head!

I blinked and almost immediately what I saw had vanished and the person before me looked like any normal person. Black hair, normal ears, and amazing violet eyes. I took another glance at him before looking at the others.

'Inuyasha' seemed to raise his eyebrow questioningly as to my gasp I had made while 'Miroku' seemed to have his eyes trained somewhere on my body which I decided to let go for now. Sango, and I know that the last person had to be Sango because she was the only female, wasn't even looking at me. Her gaze seemed to be glued angrily at 'Miroku'.

I couldn't help it, but after I finally took in what they all looked like, I reached my hand above 'Inuyasha's' head and swatted back and forth.

Inuyasha, now confirmed with his voice, scowled and took a step back. "What the hell are you doing?"

"But I saw them! They were there! I swear they were there!"

"What the hell are you babbling about?" He said sounding fairly annoyed.

I brought my hand down and rubbed my temples as I turned away, failing to miss the surprised look that the three had on their faces after what I said next, "I must be going crazy, I thought there were dog ears."

I adjusted my bag on my shoulder and turned to leave once more. "Well I'll just be going now before you all decided to send me to the loony bin or that you'll have to kill me," I paused for a moment before running as fast as I could out of the Café and out onto the main street. They couldn't do anything to me in public could they? No, they couldn't or at least, they better not be.

I skidded to a halt in front of the clothing store I was pretty sure that Yuka, Ayumi, and Eri had gone into and caught my breath. Wow, what an adrenaline rush. I usually don't get one of those until after I've had my third cup of coffee.

"Ayumi! Eri! Yuka!" I gasped out as I finally pulled myself into the store. They were standing over by a rack of clothing looking at me questioningly.

Eri then stormed over to me. "If the café was messed up like that yesterday you should've been able to come to my party!"

I looked at her blankly. My job was obviously gone and I had suddenly burst into a store like I was dying and she wanted to know why I hadn't shown up!?!?

Thankfully Ayumi and Yuka seemed to understand as I saw them heading toward me with worried looks.

"You ok? You look like a bus was chasing you down the street or something. I didn't know you were that out of shape."

"Yeah I thought you were probably the fittest out of the four of us."

So I was wrong.

(-)(-)(-)

Here I was. Curled up on my couch with a blanket wrapped around me, in my apartment. . .paranoid and alone.

It turned out Yuka, Eri, and Ayumi didn't believe a thing I had told them about what had happened yesterday and they just HAD to make a joke that since I now knew who those people looked like that they were either going to hunt me down and kill me or sneak little cameras into my house and watch my every move.

Of course since I knew that it HAD all happened, the idea that they would get or monitor me was not something I was going to take lightly. Less movement means that they have less to watch. I still hadn't figured out how I was supposed to change, and use the washroom at all yet.

I was scared and frustrated. Job gone no rental payment living on the streets because I refuse to burden my family and crazy people may be after me, though it was almost 6 pm now and I hadn't seen or heard anything suspicious around me.

My stomach growled and I groaned. Today was suppose to be my day to buy more groceries but as you can probably tell; I never got around to actually buying any food. Not letting go of my blanket I slowly walked into my kitchen and searched my cupboards for any food whatsoever.

What did I find? A half eaten box of cereal, a squished granola bar, and a juice box that looked like it hadn't seen the light of day for. . . a very long time.

A knock on my front door startled me. I got a baseball bat that I had gotten when I was 14 and had a sticker of some boy band that at the time I had thought was the greatest singing group in the world and flung open the door. Standing there was none other then. . .my little brother.

I sighed in relief and put the bat down, "Souta don't scare me like that." Of course I failed to notice the terrified look he had since his sister had just opened a door and looked like she was going to clobber him with a bat.

I quickly pulled him in and shut the door.

"Kagome why are you acting so. . .weird?"

I glanced at him as I was now pulling him to sit on the couch with me. "Weird? I'm not acting weird. Why are you here in the first place?"

"Well I'm here because Mom and Grandpa are outside in the car waiting to know if you'd like to come to dinner with us and yes you are acting really weird."

What were my options? Stay here and eat stale cereal or go out and eat a nice warm dinner with my family while possibly endangering their lives from the crazy people.

My stomach growled.

Well, if I was being watched then those lunatics probably saw my family come in the car already endangering them so I might as well get one last warm meal in before my untimely demise. "Damn I'm too young to die!" I whined making Souta look at me skeptically.

"Kagome I think you should come with us and talk to mom."

"I'm not crazy Souta and I already decided to go with you," I said standing up and heading towards the door.

"That's great sis but aren't you a little old to be carrying a blanket around with you?"

(-)(-)(-)

I continued to stuff my mouth as my Mom continued to talk about how they were doing back at home. I was on my third helping of Oden now and I was not going to stop. If I'm going to die, I'm going to die with a stomach full of the best food in the world.

"Kagome you should eat slower. It's not very healthy nor ladylike to eat like that." I heard my Grandpa comment.

"Since when was she a lady?"

I glared at Souta but slowed my pace down and didn't hold my bowl like it was attached to my mouth anymore. He snickered and I turned my head in the opposite direction as to not lose my temper.

That's when I swear I saw a flash of silver. I shook my head and turned my head to face my family once more, but my eyes drifted to where I had seen the silver.

Nope, no silver. Just two guys and some chick. . .

Oh shit!

I jumped up from my seat and rushed out of the little restaurant we were in, calling over my shoulder that I had just remembered that I hadn't finished a project for my next class that was due tomorrow and that I would pay them back for dinner next time I saw them. If I saw them again I thought sadly as I sprinted down the street in the direction of my apartment. I glanced over my shoulder to see that the three in the restaurant had stood up and were now heading to the exit that I had taken.

I quickly turned a corner and then dashed into the nearest alleyway and ducked in between a pair of garbage cans. I silently cursed myself for hiding like a chicken.

I heard footsteps and while two pairs seemed to continue down the street, the third had stopped and now seemed to be getting closer.

I had my eyes closed and the steps had now stopped. Unfortunately they just happened to stop in front of my hiding place.

I automatically recognized Inuyasha's voice, "Get up wench. I can see and smell you."

Oh yeah I was automatically offended. Not only did he call me wench but here I was sitting between a pair of garbage cans and he had said that he could smell me! I lifted my head to glare at him and slowly stood up.

He pressed a little button near his shirt, "Found her. She was in the alleyway two blocks away from the restaurant."

I raised my eyebrow. Ok, now that was something that I would've expected to hear in a spy movie.

Sango's voice seemed to reply out of thin air. "Okay we're coming. Keep her there."

"Yeah, yeah I know."

There was silence for a moment.

"You're going to kill me." I said and turned to look at the stars, "Damn I never got to eat at the new sushi bar yet either! I never got to ride a pony, or boat, or plane, or...ugh."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Shush!" I glared at Inuyasha, "I'm saying all the things I never got to do and regret doing before you kill me now. That reminds me, I regret the time I stuck a naked Barbie into Souta's lunchbox two years ago and the time I tried to auction off my Mom's car so I could buy a double scoop ice cream. . ."

"Who said I was going to kill you?"

I blinked and looked at him slightly curiously. "If you're not going to kill me, what do you want me for?" I back up against the wall and darted my eyes around, "You're not a rapist are you?! Get away from me! You might have STDs or AIDS! AHH RAAAAAAA-"

He covered my mouth with his hand, "Shut up! I am not a rapist you bitch. Now be quiet when I talk my hand off your mouth."

As he removed his hand I scuffed and looked at the ground, "That is what a rapist would say to trick someone into trusting them and then you'll go and take me, somehow drug me and have your way but since I know I stand no match in getting away it looks like I'm stuck here."

"I said I'm not a rapist!" he growled.

"Uh huh. Suuuuuuuuure you aren't."

"Stupid bitch. . ."

"Hey who are you calling a bitch you. . .stalking rapist!"

Miroku's voice interrupted our conversation, "Inuyasha I never knew!"

"I AM NOT A RAPIST DAMNIT!" he yelled as he punch the other side of the alley. I gaped at the hole that he had made. I am really glad I wasn't on the receiving end of that fist.

"Don't worry Inuyasha, I won't tell anyone."

I laughed and Miroku turned and smiled at me, "Why hello, you must be Kagome Higurashi."

I now remembered what the situation I was in and shut my mouth and glared at Miroku, "My name is of no business to you."

"Ah but it is, beautiful miko."

"Beautiful my ass," I heard Inuyasha snort but I just looked at Miroku confused.

"Yeah, it would really help if I knew what a miko was."

"Why the answer is simple," he replied, "It is what you are."

I raised my eyebrow, that had to be the vaguest answer I had every heard in my life. . .unless he was trying to say I was human which I'm pretty sure was not what he meant.

"Stupid bitch."

I glared at Inuyasha, "I am not stupid!"

"Yes you are."

"No I'm not!"

"Yes you are!"

"No I'm not!"

"YES YOU ARE!"

"NO I'M NOT!"

"SHUT UP!"

We instantly went quiet and he turned to look at the wall while I turned to look at whoever had interrupted my argument.

The woman, Sango, stood there shaking her head but I could see a smile on her face.

"I am not stupid, I just don't know what a miko is!"

She looked at me, her eyes sparkling in laughter a bit. "A miko is a person with strong spiritual powers. It's kind of like a priestess but for your type, you need not be a virgin and your powers can be used for not only healing, but destruction as well."

I felt my cheeks heat up a bit but I stayed silent hoping that no one would notice.

"Miss. Higurashi, you are a virgin aren't you." I heard Miroku say beside me. I couldn't keep the blush from rising further.

"Will you do me a favor?"

I saw Sango get a little annoyed but I refused to see Inuyasha's reaction.

"What do you want?" I finally replied trying to keep the unease out of my voice.

He took my hands in his. "Will you bear my child?"

Silence. . .

WHAT THE HELL!?!?


	3. Example

Aw my fingers are getting soar from all the writing I've been doing lately. I've got so many story ideas floating around in my brain that I get confused sometimes (not to forget that I'm rotating writing chapters for all of them so it's even harder xx;). 

Well here's the third chap, hope you like it

Condemn me for Eternity

Chapter 3 – Example

I glared at the sprawled out form of Miroku that lay in front of my, "I was wrong, you aren't just rapists, you're fucking INSANE rapists!"

I kicked Miroku before moving over to Sango, "You are the most insane of them all aren't you! God, MIKOS?!?! You sound like my senile grandpa . . . "

I looked her in the eyes, "My grandfather hired you to do this to me didn't he!" I began to pace around, "He probably couldn't get Souta to take over the shrine like he had hoped and now he's trying to get me into it!"

"I swear that we have no connection whatsoever with your grandfather." She replied calmly.

"Oh, yeah," I said sarcastically, "And how much did he pay you to say that?"

I brushed past Sango and headed out of the alley but my arm was grabbed. Damn it, why did people have to keep stopping me!?

"We aren't fucking lying bitch." I heard Inuyasha say.

"Yeah well you're mouth just makes me want to believe you sooooo much more, now doesn't it. Oh wow, the mighty god has let you swear on behalf on the half of the world that refuses to."

Inuyasha was about to say something when a loud beeping noise started. All three of them, Inuyasha, who let go of me, Miroku, who was now sitting on the ground, and Sango, pulled out what seemed like a palm pilot.

I blinked when they all nodded and started to head down the rest of the alley way, "Hey, what's going on?"

Sango stopped and turned to face me while Miroku and Inuyasha continued down the alley, "Something's come up. We'll have to get back to you another time . . . Actually," She said with a thoughtful look before grabbing my hand and pulling her along with her, "Maybe this will get you to believe what is going on."

I grumbled, "I should've run when I could've."

(-)(-)(-)

"Are we there yet?"

"Will you shut up! You're driving me crazy!"

I stuck out my tongue at the back of Inuyasha's head, "How am I supposed to be driving you crazy, you're suppose to be driving the car!"

"Why y-"

"Inuyasha, please hold in your anger for when we reach the demon. It will be put to better use then." Miroku interrupted.

"Keh."

"So . . . demon? Wow, seems like fun. No wait, sounds more like a Disney movie or kind of like Ghostbusters," I said looking out the window.

"We've just had to get a sarcastic bitch didn't we?"

"Inuyasha!"

"What? It's the truth and you know it Sango."

"Well with the way you're acting and the fact she doesn't know much about what we do, she has the right to be as sarcastic as you want. If you were human, you'd probably think the same way she does."

That got my attention, "He's not human?"

"Sango . . . "

"Erk."

"That means . . . ," I leaned forward a placed my hands on his head completely and moved them around until I felt something twitch under my fingers, "OH MY GOD!"

I felt them instinctively lay down on his head, "What?" he growled.

"You . . . YOU DO HAVE CUTE LITTLE INVISIBLE DOGGY EARS!"

I heard the laughter that Miroku and Sango were trying to repress and Inuyasha's growl get louder.

I moved my hands to where normal ears would've been and ran my hand right through them before sitting back in my seat in a daze.

"You don't have normal ears . . . and yet you have invisible dog ears on your head that I thought I saw earlier. This is one fucked up dream."

"I'm sorry Kagome, but it's not a dream." I heard Sango say beside me.

"How do you know?"

Suddenly I felt Sango pinch me.

"Ow! What was that for?!?" I said glaring at her.

She just smiled, "See, not a dream."

The car pulled to a stop in front of an apartment building with no lights on.

"We're here, Kagome," Sango said looking at me seriously, "You may be coming with us so that you can see this for your own eyes but you must stay near us at all times. We can't guarantee that you won't get hurt or even killed if you don't."

I gulped, "O-ok."

I still had no idea why I was now willingly following them into a dark building but I was and there was no turning back now.

"Elevator's broken," I heard Miroku say.

"Wouldn't matter," Inuyasha grumbled, "It'd probably hear the elevator moving and either attack the cable-line that is holding us up, or attack us as soon as the doors open."

I shivered. That was not how I wanted to die. Death in an elevator with 3 people I was only half an hour ago running away from.

"The stairs are over here," I followed Sango towards a door where a stairway was.

"What level is it supposed to be on anyways?" I asked.

"Can't you tell?"

I looked at Miroku as if he had grown another head. The power was out. How the hell was I suppose to know?

"Just look up for a few seconds."

I rolled my eyes but did as told, after a few seconds I began to notice a dark mist floating around the fourth floor.

"Is that a special effect?"

"No that's jyaki, it's only a small amount so there's probably only a weak one up there."

I nodded in understanding, even though I had no idea what he was talking about still.

We started to go up the stairs as quietly as possible, well, more like everyone else seeming to be moving stealth-like and me clunking up behind them. Of course the noise I created made the demon move because I noticed that the jyaki had become fainter . . . and the fact that Inuyasha growled at me to be quieter.

When we finally reached the fourth floor the jyaki was barely visible so we had to jog to try to catch up with it.

I got tired and stopped to catch my breath for a moment but by the time I looked back up, the others had already disappeared. I started to run down the hall again in the direction we were last headed but I soon came to a four way cut. Squinting my eyes, I attempted to find the jyaki again but I found 2 spots this time. I went to the closest (and smaller) one. It was in one of the rooms but the door was closed so I hesitated to go in. After a few minutes of debating, I just rushed into the room.

I saw a normal room.

I cautiously glanced around and noticed a fluff ball lying on a nearby chair. "Here kitty, it's not safe to be here right now." I cooed softly as I walked over to it.

"I'm not a kitty"

I blinked as I saw a child's head pop up from under the fluffy tail.

I smiled and practically jumped on the kid like a hobo would a ham sandwich, "Oh my god! You're so cute!!!"

I continued to ooo and ahhh at the kid, completely ignoring his complaining to let go until I felt him get pulled roughly out of my arms.

"Shippo what the hell are you doing here!?"

"What do you think I'm doing?" he pouted, "You left me with Kaede, AGAIN!"

Inuyasha growled, "I left you with Kaede because you always get in the way."

Shippo's eyes began to water and I smacked Inuyasha on the head before taking Shippo back into my arms, "He's only a kid, don't be mean!"

Inuyasha growled, "I'm not being mean, I'm just telling the truth!"

"Well do you have to be so blunt?"

"You know, she has a point there but we've gotta get back to finding that demon," Miroku said from the doorway.

"Keh."

Suddenly my head started to hurt, "I don't think we need to go find it . . . "

The others just looked at me confused.

"I think it just found us," I said as the wall to my left collapsed to reveal a large centipede like monster.

(-)(-)(-)

I felt like an ant compared to the size of the demon, well, not really an ant, more like a chair because it wasn't too big . . . ok no, I really did feel like an ant.  
Sango, Miroku, and Inuyasha were fighting while I stood behind them with Shippo because, let's face it, the only self-defense I knew was what I learned a few years ago from watching Miss Congeniality and SING just didn't seem like it would help much at this moment.

The centipede swung around and flung Sango into a wall. Miroku rushed over to see if she was ok but she was unconscious and Inuyasha continued to fight, though I was beginning to worry because he seemed to be taking a lot of damage.

"Shit, I've got to take down the spell."

I watched as it seemed like thousands of threads unwrapped themselves from around his body revealing the dog eared, silver haired, and amber eyed man I had only seen glimpses of before. I also noticed that a cloud of jyaki seemed to appear around him.

The next few minutes seemed like a blur. Inuyasha moved so fast that . . . he looked like a blur and in an instant the centipede was in half on the floor.

I slowly walked up to him as he cursed while making sure that the centipede was dead.

I stood beside him gazing at his figure.

"Will you stop staring!?!" He said after a minute in an annoyed tone.

"But," I paused before jumping on him while trying to get a hold of his ears, "They're so cute!!!!"

(-)(-)(-)

It took awhile to pry me off of Inuyasha, though I swear at first he seemed to enjoy the attention his ears were getting before he started to try to literally throw me out the window to get me away from him.

When we left the building, I was disappointed as I watched that not only Inuyasha, but Shippo also put up a spell of some sort removing their demon qualities from sight.

"Now do you understand what we do?" I heard Sango say behind me.

"Well I kind of do but what do I have that you need me for?" I asked, still slightly confused about the miko and demon-hunting concept.

"You'll learn it if you decide to join us."

"If I decline?"

"You can go on with you're life but," she said as an afterthought, "because you're a miko, your powers may grow and the stronger they get, the easier for rogue demons to sense and they might go after you and kill you."

I gulped, "So basically, it's join, train and kill demons or not join, live life normally for awhile and die a horrible death."

She nodded sadly.

I sighed, "I guess I don't have a choice really, when do I start?"

"Tomorrow," Sango said smiling.

"Oh wait before you go," I said as I saw Sango turning to leave, "Do I get paid for this?"


	4. The UCS

**AN:** This chapter has been sitting on my desk for quite some time, I just didn't get to type it until today. u.u; This chapter would've been longer but the next scene was to long to match my usual page count. Ah well, that just means that the next chapter has a big chunk finished already.

Once again I'd like to say that QuickEdit has eaten my formating. I'll be playing around with what I can use to replace it for now.

On with the story now!

**Condemn me for Eternity**

_Chapter 4 – The UCS_

I was in the car again, this time Miroku and Inuyasha weren't there. Sango told me that Miroku had to report the incident to Keade, who was incharge of Japan's section of Universal Celestial Safety (UCS for short).

UCS is an organization built by two humans, one demon, and one priestess approximately 2000 years ago. The goal was 'life for all' meaning everyone had a chance to live. Of course the goal had since changed over the years to 'protection of the innocent' due to the abuse of the original.

It was still all new to me but I've been known to be very . . . resilient? No, that wasn't the word for it, was it? Well whatever the word was, I just didn't crack under pressure easily.

Ok, that was a lie. I am not good with stress at all.

"Are you ok?"

I turned to face Sango beside me, "I'm fine, absolutely perfect!" I said, my voice rising in pitch so much that it made me wince.

"Then why are you shaking? You look like a time bomb waiting to explode," she replied, seeming not to have noticed the change in my voice.

"Well this is just too much!" I said frantically, "This is just too much to fast. I keep hoping when I blink my eyes I'll wake up and find out this is all just a dream and I can go on in my less then boring life that didn't risk my sanity."

She sighed, "I was wondering when you'd finally cave in."

"This is all like a movie but I suck at acting and when the monster dies, it really dies! I've live my whole life until today thinking my grandfather was a senile old coot and in less then three hours all his stories become true."

"Kagome, you're grandfather isn't registered in our database so he IS a senile old coot, as you so lovingly put it. You are the first in your family line to have enough spiritual energy to actually do any form of damage or healing. Most of your powers at the moment are dormant but the parts that are active could be a danger to not only you, but to our whole society. You were able to see though Inuyasha's concealing spell. Even if you only saw glimpses of his true form, you have to realize that the spells that hide his demon attributes from human eyes is one of the more advanced ones known. Because of this, you could probably walk around and identify every demon wearing a lesser spell when you go down the street soon," she paused for a moment, "The thing is that we usually know the instant a miko or demon is born. They don't have the ability to hide their energy until five hours of being fully exposed to our air. You, as a baby, showed no indication that you held any miko powers."

"What does that have to do with this?"

"It has everything to do with this. If we found you when you were born, you would've grown up knowing that this all existed and you wouldn't have been so surprised."

"Well," I said calming down slightly, "sometimes you make mistakes."

I saw her hands clench tightly on the steering wheel, "No, we can't afford to make mistakes."

The car pulled to a halt outside my apartment building.

"It's too late for you to be introduced to Kaede today, you have classes tomorrow morning anyways. I'll pick you up after you're done and take you to headquarters," Sango said, not once glancing at me nor loosening her grip on the steering wheel.

I nodded slowly and got out of the car. It wasn't until I was changed into my pyjamas and brushing my teeth that I realized that she knew my school schedule.

* * *

My first class went by quickly and my lunch consisted of Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi offering new job suggestions. 

Then my second, and last, class of the day ended up being cancelled. Apparently my professor had lived in the apartment building that I had so happily visited and watched get somewhat destroyed yesterday. My apartment was too far to walk to and walk back before the usual end of my class so I sat in front of the gates, waiting to get picked up by Sango.

"Higurashi, don't you have a class right now?"

I spun around to face Hojo, a guy that I shared a science class last year with.

"It was cancelled. The teacher called at the last moment and it was to late to get a substitute, what about you?"

"I have a spare right now."

"Oh well, that's nice," I replied blankly. I still had no idea why he was talking to me.

"Higurashi, would you mind going to-"

"Oi, Kagome!"

I blinked at the flustered Hojo before looking over my shoulder to see Inuyasha.

"Hey, you're early...and I thought Sango was picking me up."

"Sango was busy when we heard you class was cancelled so they sent me. Who's this guy?"

"Oh right," I said as it suddenly dawned on me that I had been talking to Hojo before Inuyasha arrived, "Hojo, I'd like you to meet a new friend of mine, Inuyasha. Inuyasha, this is Hojo, and old classmate."

"Hi."

"Hello."

It was silent for a few seconds (that felt like minutes) before Hojo turned to go, "I'll talk to you another time Higurashi since you seem busy. Bye."

"See ya Hojo"

I looked at Inuyasha who seemed to be staring a hole into Hojo's retreating figure.

"No wonder you have so little friends, you look like you're going to kill him."

"Keh."

"So, let's go or are you really going to just stand there glaring all day."

He shrugged and started to walk away, "This way to the car, wench."

"...What..did you SAY?!"

* * *

The car ride was silent but I kept glancing at him to see if I could see his puppy ears as I had completely forgotten about the wench comment as soon as I sat down. I saw them for a brief moment twice but they always disappeared after a second or two. 

We stopped and I looked out the window to notice that we have stopped in front of a fitness centre.

I followed Inuyasha inside confused until we went into the back room and walked behind a pile of boxes. There was an elevator door with a card slot.

He pulled out a card, which looked like a membership card for the centre, and pushed it into the slot. The card went in and out quickly and the doors opened.

We went down the elevator to what was said to be floor B5 and stepped out into what seemed like a business company. A few people walked through the halls but I was to busy watching Inuyasha as he sighed in relief as he took down his spell revealing his demon features. "There's a barrier around the centre which will hide my youki so I don't need the spell on."

I looked at him questioningly, "But I thought that was called jyaki."

He shook his head as we walked down the hallway, "Youki is the aura of a demon, jyaki is kind of like the essence of evil that is wrapped in a demon's youki. You probably didn't notice yesterday but normal youki looks like a pale cloud around a demon while jyaki looks darker and gives off a slightly foreboding feeling."

I nodded slowly, letting the information process into my brain.

"I might as well tell you about shouki also now," He said as we continued to walk down the hallway, "Unlike jyaki and youki, there is no definite colour. It can be light or dark. Another difference is that shouki can actually damage or and even possibly kill you. That description might confuse you on how to see the difference between it and the others but it's actually really easy."

"How so?"

"Jyaki and Youki just float around a demon, shouki can be moved like an instant fog or it can even be like the shape of light beams."

"I see...," suddenly another question popped into my mind, "Sango mentioned yesterday that there is more then one spell that conceals what you look like. I don't know now if it's true or not, it's just something I picked out of what she was saying" I said remember when she had said 'Even if you only saw glimpses of his true form, you have to realize that the spells that hide his demon attributes from human eyes is one of the more advanced ones known.'

"I actually use a combination of spells, you noticed the other night how when I took off and put on the spell it seemed like there were thousands of threads right?"

I nodded.

"Well those threads were parts of multiple spells that hold together the four spells that change my features. The main spells are for my eyes, hair, and my ears. I've got two for my ears, one to hide the real ones and one to make it look like I have human ones."

"That's so cool!" I said cutting him off from walking, "Do you know any other spells?"

He pushed past me and continued to walk, "Nothing that would help you."

I pouted but followed after him. We entered a room and I saw Sango typing on a laptop at a desk.

"Inuyasha, your brother wants to see you," she said, not once looking away from the screen in front of her.

He growled and walked back out the door. I started to follow him but was stopped by Sango's voice.

"Don't worry about him, you're suppose to see Kaede in a few minutes so just sit anywhere and wait for the door to open," she said pointing to the door behind her, eyes still trained to the computer screen.

I sat down in one of the three chairs across from Sango and watched her as she continued to type furiously on the laptop. I wanted to ask her about her reaction near the end of our conversation in the car yesterday but was somewhat afraid of what she would say. Instead I tried to make a simple conversation with her to cure the silence in to room.

"So what are you doing?"

"Organizing reports from all of yesterday's incidents including the one we were in for Keade."

"How many is that?"

"About 23."

I looked at her in surprise, "You mean to tell me that there were 23 attacks yesterday?"

"Yup"

"Is there always that many?"

"Sometimes, some days we don't get any and others there are so many that we can't stop them all."

Silenced filled the room, aside from the clicking noises from Sango's laptop. I sighed and looked at the door behind her.

Just what have I gotten myself into now?


	5. Member

**AN:** Chapter 5 is here::hears boos:: hey that's mean! TT;; Well here's the chapter anyways. Look, it's longer then all the others! I feel kind of proud, not really. I really wanted to start making 15-20 page chapters but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I don't know why, it could possibly be that even when I write them originally, they're about 22 pages long (I guess I write really big). In the end, they only show up as about 10 pages when typed. All I can say is that it's the computer's fault for making them smaller.

I've said this already in CW - Chapter 3 but I highly doubt all of you read my other stories. I apologize if the first few chapters formatting seem a little off, this story was started before (or was it around the same time...) that QuickEdit was implemented onto I'm still debating about if I should or should not repost the other chapters and fix them up for all my stories, the formatting for CP was really bad to begin with considering it was my first story here.

Anywho, can anyone say 'foreshadowing'? Lots of it done in this chapter for many different parts further in the story. They're pretty easy to pick up, they pretty much tie into the characters making them not to hard to find.

Another thing about this chapter is that it doesn't change scenes very much. It all takes place in the UCS building. Hehe, thischapter makes me wonder if I've watched to many spy movies. Who knows, not me at least. I actually haven't watched any movies for quite awhile. I guess I should stop this note now, I don't want to accidentally end up giving away points that come up later in the story, or at least,more then I have now/already (I have a bad habit of doing that) or to ramble on about myself. I can always do that in my profile instead.

Hope you like the chapter and as always, please remember to R&R!  
-Air Angel

* * *

**Condemn Me for Eternity**

_Chapter 5 - Member_

I waited, and waited, and waited. Sango was still typing away on the report she had to finish and I continued to just sit. Inuyasha hadn't returned from his meeting with his brother, not that I was sure if he was coming back or not.

There was no clock in the room and, lucky me, I forgot to wear my watch this morning. I had no idea how long I had been waiting there for and the room itself added to my boredom. There weren't any pictures on the walls or any interesting furnishings either. I suppose that's why I spent my time staring into the glossy reflection of myself in the hardwood floor. As plain as the room was, the floor was so clean and so shiny I could see myself easily in it.

"Do you find the floor interesting?"

I looked up and saw Sango closing her laptop, "Well it's more interesting then watching you type."

"It's only been ten minutes," She said raising her eyebrow.

"Only ten minutes?!" My eyes widened in surprise, "That was ONLY ten minutes?! That felt like two hours!"

"You're not very patient are you," Sango said holding back a laugh.

"I can be patient...when I want to at least," I pouted then began to whine, "How much loooonnngggeerrr?"

She rolled her eyes, "How should I know? I don't keep track of Kaede, it's not like I'm her mother. Hell, she could probably pass off as MY grandmother."

"Ugh, old people are bossy," I muttered remembering my old theory teacher from the year before. He had always went on about how I should listen to him because he was my elder yet he couldn't even remember what my name was half the time. Not to forget my not-so-completely senile grandfather.

"So I'm bossy then?"

Surprised I swung my eyes off of Sango and onto the old woman standing at the doorway behind her. For a moment the woman also seemed surprised, and then a little sad, before going into a neutral, calm yet gentle, expression.

"Oh I didn't mean you!...As you, I mean," I sighed and stopped myself from babbling though I couldn't help being embarrassed, "I'm sorry, I was referring to some other people I know."

"That is alright, now let's go into my office to speak."

She closed the door as I entered her office and then gestured me to a plush seat across from her own chair which she sat in a few seconds later.

"Now, did you want an overview first or were you already given one."

"I was told a bit but I still don't know much. Can you tell me in your own words, they're probably better then listening to a little here and there."

"Alright then, where do you want me to begin?"

"I guess you can start with what I get out of this," I paused, "Of course that doesn't mean I'm not taking this 'job' after all I don't have much of a choice."

"From what I've read about you, you're currently taking courses at a collage or was it a university...well never mind about that. What I want to say is that you do not need to stop taking your classes. As much as it is easier on all of us if you didn't take them, we can't force you to stop. We can speak to the school board about letting you come and go as you please, we already do it for a few others already anyways. We will also help support you as a normal job would give you pay because it would not be easy for you to get a job and to leave during work hours if there is an emergency. You're family would be added into a protection list so that the rogues, as I like to call them, cannot use them against you. Next?"

I leaned back in the chair I was on, "The deal so far is pretty good though dangerous right? I would need to be trained in something or else," I winced, "I might hurt someone by accident or just be in the way in general."

"You'll get special training," She glanced at the file in front of her, "You are a...miko," she said slowly.

I thought I saw the look of sadness again but just as before, it was erased quickly.

"First we'll have to test you to see how strong your powers are and how much you have. I can set it to be done later today sometime after we finish talking."

"Alright...so does that mean I won't be going out to fight anything until the training is finished or rather, even started?"

"No, you'll be going out still even as a trainee. It's the best way to learn until you use and control your powers, you'll need to stay out of the way as much as possible. You'll be placed with the group that discovered you. The reasons for that are one, they were the people who met you first, it would be easier to work with them since you are already acquainted and two, they are one of the strongest groups that we have in our section. It is better for you to be in a reliable group rather then a group which is new or isn't as well off to being able to keep you out of danger or harms way. Is there anything else you would like to know?"

"Well I've already learned about how this whole thing was formed, I don't think there is anything else really. Would I get a little membership card to get down here?"

Kaede laughed, "Yes you will, you'll also get a few other things. I'll let whoever is giving you them tell you about them though. It's much easier that way plus they keep coming out with new things, it's hard for me to keep track."

"That's all I guess, If I suddenly have another question can I just ask someone if I can speak to you about it?"

"That is alright, though I'm fairly busy sometimes," She pressed a button on a phone on her desk, "Sango, please send someone in to take Kagome to receive her entry card and other things. Also I'd like the damage reports and bills for last week, we need to catch up on those."

I heard a soft yet obviously strained ok and a click, "Stressful work?"

"It's not to bad, the smart rogues know that making a mess makes it easier for us to track them down. Lately though there's been an increase in their activity and they don't seem to much care about keeping themselves hidden or alive anymore," She shook her head, "The bills just keep adding up. We're lucky we are supported by the government."

The door opened and I turned to see Inuyasha walk in, "I'm here to pick up the girl."

I nearly commented on how he had called me a girl, still not my name but not as bad as calling me a wench. Instead I glanced between Kaede and Inuyasha and noticed that Kaede was watching Inuyasha as if waiting to see some kind of reaction for a reason beyond me. I stood up and bowed a little, a habit from helping out at the shrine when I was at home, and walked to the open door.

Once out of the office I noticed that Sango was no longer in the room, "Where's Sango?"

"She's getting the reports that Kaede asked for. Though, she wasn't very happy," He shrugged, "I guess she wanted to be the one to show you around."

Walking into the hallway, we went a few doors down. The room was filled with boxes and other various packages. Inuyasha swiftly shifted through them, grabbed one and opened it, cutting the tape that sealed it closed with a claw, "Here," he said putting down the box on a table, probably set-up just for that reason, "You get everything in the box but knowing the hag, she probably didn't tell you anything about what you get."

He handed me a card, "You saw me use one earlier you, I assume you know what that's for, keep it on you at all times, you and the rest of us don't want anyone that doesn't belong here wandering around under your name."

Next he pulled out a cellphone and battery, "There's a trick to these things," he said while slipping the battery into place and turning the phone on before handing it over to me, "You can call anyone one you want, it doesn't matter, it'll work but you don't get an actual phone number. It's set to only take in calls that come from registered phones for those who work here. I guess they don't want people to use them as a personal phone all the time. Kind of a stupid idea if you ask me, it's not like we get much time to meet people outside of the UCS."

He went back to the small box, "You get two extra batteries for the phone so that if it dies, you can just plug another in, but don't forget to recharge the one you use afterwards. The storage people are stingy about giving out any more then that."

"There's more?" I asked, fingering the phone in my hands as he still rummaged through the small box.

"Just a few more things," he pulled out a plastic wrapped package, "Uniform."

"A uniform? No one was wearing a uniform when we came in."

"It's only for special meetings and such, no one really bothers to use it for any other occasion. It should fit, if not, tell either Sango, the storage stooges, Kaede, or me and one of us will get you a different size."

"How would you know my size," I said raising my eyebrow.

"File folder."

"Ah...," What exactly did they have in that folder about me?

He reached into the box and pulled out a book, "You don't need to read this, it's just a little thing about the history of UCS which you should already know."

"Ok..."

He then pulled out another plastic wrapped package, "You saw us use these yesterday," he unwrapped the parcel, "This little button you attach to the collar of your shirt, it works like a walkie talkie. Press the button to talk, don't press anything to listen. It's only used for our group though, you can't contact anyone else with it."

"I guess it's easier to use when on a hunt or whatever you want to call what you all did last night, instead of pulling out a cellphone all the time," I thought for a moment, "Wait, these phones don't accept incoming calls! How are you suppose to use those phones then!?"

"I did say earlier that registered phones can go through, I guess you didn't understand. Registered phones are phones used by the UCS meaning all phones in the UCS can contact each other."

"But how do you call someone when they don't have a phone number?"

"All the phones have a member directory on them, you just have press the number button and say the name and group of the person you want to talk to."

"So we have our own operators that connect them?"

"Something like that."

I looked at the opened package in his hands, "Is that the palm piolet I saw you using yesterday also?"

"Yeah but these are also specially made to send messages throughout the UCS."

"Another reason why we don't need the cellphones?"

"Pretty much, I think the main reason why they make us keep the phone is because it's sometimes better to hear someone say something then to read it over a message. It's still stupid though."

"You do have a point about that. Well, at least it's good for ordering pizza."

"Next," he pulled out a paper form and a black box, "You need to sign this form. I'll give it to the storage guys later. It's so they can check off that you got you're stuff and to note which phone code or whatever the hell they use on that phone is set for you. It's also to activate the palm piolet and the communicator."

"What's with that box this time?" eyeing it in his hand, it only seemed around the size of a ring box, it even had a velvet texture on the outside.

"It's a seal for the UCS, the entrance card won't do you any good outside of this building though it's still important. This seal is so you can reach places where only UCS workers can go during dangerous situations like an attack."

"So the entrance card is like our ID for the UCS while the seal is something like...a police badge?"

"Kind of, compared to a police badge though, this is a higher rank."

"Really now, can I use it if I'm speeding down the road to say, an accident and the police try to pull me over?" I mentally thought about the possibilities.

"Yes it would work," He looked at me oddly, "You don't have a car though."

Shrugging I took the form from him, "I know, it was just a thought. Got a pen?"

He passed me a pen which was sitting on the table, "You can put that stuff back into the box and take it with you if you want."

"Hey wait, how do you know I don't have a car?"

"I had to pick you up earlier and the night I took you home you didn't have a car in the parking space for your apartment."

"Well I could've left it at the Café parking lot!"

"Don't forget about the file."

"Damn you that's not fair," I whined, "You all know stuff about me but I barely know anything about you."

"We're working together remember? You'll get to know us all over time."

I finished signing the form, gave it to him, and took my new belongings, "Where to now?" I said sulking, I was still upset about the file thing.

"I guess we can head back to see if Kaede needed to tell you anything else."

We walked back and Sango greeted us, "Kaede said to come back tomorrow for you're testing," she smiled, "You're gonna be in our group soon, let's go get to know each other better now, ok? I'm finally finished for today."

Nodding I turned to Inuyasha, "You want to come? You're in the group also right?"

He made a noise that sounded like a 'keh' and walked back into the hallway, "If we're going to get to know each other, might as well get the lecher also."

"A lecher?" I furrowed my brow in confusion before remembering the other man from the day before, while following Inuyasha out again, "You mean Miroku?"

Sango rolled her eyes, "Miroku is a pervert, no matter how many times he says he's a priest, don't listen to him."

"Oh I know he's a pervert," I blushed a bit, "I figured that out when I was listening to the two of you after the café incident, remember? Not to forget what he asked me yesterday in the alley."

"You mean the 'Will you bear my child?' crap he said? That's his famous pick-up line, he uses it on almost any woman he sees." she muttered.

"Why does he say that?...and why did you just mutter?"

Inuyasha cut in, "No one really knows why he says that, Sango here is just upset that she never had the honor of hearing him say it to her."

"I am not! I just pity any girl who has to go through his little display. Especially when he does it in public!"

Laughing, I almost didn't notice when we entered a room where a few others were lounging around. Some sat at tables where they were snacking on some food and others were sitting in some plush chairs in front of a small TV.

"Oi, Miroku!"

I finally noticed him as he waved us over to a table where he was sitting with the demon I had met yesterday in the apartment building, Shippo. They seemed to be eating cake.

"What is it?" he asked while taking another bite of cake.

"Addition to group, remember?"

"Ah yes," Miroku said, putting his fork down before standing up and moving to stand beside me, "The lovely Kagome, it's a pleasure to see you again."

Sango slapped his hands away from reaching towards me, "Yeah, yeah, keep you're hands to yourself."

"Sango, how can you think I would do anything inappropriate."

"If you remember what you did when I first met you, you'll know why I want you to keep to yourself," she said, staring at him evenly.

"You can't blame me, you were unconscious! I needed to make sure you were ok."

She seemed to flare up in anger, "I was not unconscious, I was half asleep and since when was feeling someone up a sign of checking if someone was ok?!"

"He felt you up while you were sleeping?" I asked surprised, "I already knew he was a little perverted but to do something like that, you must have problems."

"I told you, I thought she was unconscious!" he whined.

I blinked, "How did you manage to feel her up when she was sleeping? Wouldn't she have been in her own room or something?"

"I'll explain," I quirked my head and looked over at Inuyasha, semi-ignoring the now furious Sango who was attempting to kill Miroku with a fork that she stole from Shippo, "If you listen to them, you won't get anywhere. Sango will over exaggerate while Miroku will make it seem like it was an act of god."

"Shouldn't we stop them first?"

"Not unless you want the fork to be turned on you,"

I shuddered at the thought of the enraged woman stabbing me with the pointy, cream and cake crusted utensil, "She won't kill him at least will she?"

He snorted, "As long as a woman walks on earth, nothing will keep him down."

I took a seat at the now empty table as Shippo had left to find another fork to finish his cake, "So how did they meet?" my curiosity had returned.

"It was around the time Sango first started her training in this base," he said slowly as he also sat down, he paused as if it was a memory that took awhile to pull back to the surface, "Sango used to work in the base in Nagoya, she was transferred over her about three years ago."

"Why did she transfer?"

"I don't know, I never really thought about it then," he shrugged, "We probably were short on people or the base in Nagoya had to many. Anyways, she hadn't been assigned to a group yet at the time and spent most of her time training."

"Training? If I'm a miko, what is she?"

Sighing, he looked at me in the eyes, "Do you want to know what happened or not?"

I nodded, "Obviously, why would I have asked what happened if I didn't?"

"Well then let me finish, you can ask all you're questions after ok?"

I nodded again, this time not saying anything.

"Alright then, there are about ten training areas in this base, each one is used for different types of people and demons. Each area obviously has locker rooms, one for the girls and one for the guys. From what I heard, she had a habit of taking naps on the benches in the girls locker room after a hard work-out. The day that Miroku met Sango was the day that she had been assigned to our group. Miroku and I worked solo up until, hell, I didn't even know that he existed until I walked into Kaede's office and saw him sitting on a chair. We waited for about ten minutes for Sango to arrive but she never did. Kaede ended up telling us about our new partnership and then sending us off to find Sango and tell her. We asked around for awhile on where she was until someone told us that they had seen her training about an hour earlier. We went to the area but she wasn't there. I sat down, sick of having to walk but Miroku wanted to check around a bit more. It was kind of obvious that he was inching his way to the girls locker room."

"You let him go in?!"

"Hey it's not my fault if he goes in and gets beaten up for it! It's not like I followed him...and what did I say about interrupting?"

I shook my head, "Continue."

"Well I don't have much else to say. A few minutes later I heard a scream from the locker room and then less then a minute after that I saw him run out of the locker room with a girl chasing after him ready to kill. Miroku has said that he had gone in to see the passed out Sango lying on a bench hardly breathing an had attempted to help her while Sango told me that she was resting on the bench from her work-out, which of course meant sleeping, and he had felt her up which is, out of the two stories, more likely what happened inside the locker room."

I laughed, "Poor Sango never saw it coming did she."

"Poor Sango?! Poor me!" I looked away from Inuyasha and watched as Miroku literally crawled over to the table and pulled himself onto a chair, "I feel like I've run a marathon...twice!"

"Did she actually get you with the fork?"

"No, Shippo convinced her to give the fork back to him so he could finish his cake," he pouted, still catching his breath before sighing dramatically, "Unlike me, she'd never hit Shippo. I find that so completely unfair."

"You know that she still holds a grudge from when you met her, it's your own fault that she hates you so much," Inuyasha said offhandedly while leaning back, tipping his chair a little.

I glanced around, "Where did Sango go? Wasn't she chasing you?"

"While you two were talking and making no attempt to help me escape her wrath," he said panting while glaring at Inuyasha who, in exchange, keh'ed, "I ran out of the room and down the hall and hid behind the big fern plant near the conference rooms."

Inuyasha yawned, "You're lucky she's not a demon, she could've sniffed you out easily if she was."

"I know."

"Wait, she didn't see you hiding behind a plant?" I asked skeptically, hiding behind a plant was pretty pathetic within itself yet I couldn't really complain, I hid between garbage the day before.

"Kagome," Miroku said looking at me seriously, or as seriously as a guy who looked like he was going to pass out could, "When I say a big fern plant, I mean a BIG fern plant."


	6. Imposter

**AN:** Dun dun dun PLOT TWIST! Ah yes, the joys of plot twists and...uh...other stuff XP.

Ok, let's see...notes for this chapter. First the miko classes in this chapter is something I completely made up, so don't believe it to be true (not that anyone would). Next I'm surprised no one caught onto the double Hojo thing :( it made me sad but I'm guessing you either didn't notice, thought it was a typo because I'm a stupid author that would use characters twice in a story (NOT!...well maybe), or just didn't mention it.

Lastly, oh wait there is nothing left. Wow, I guess that's the end of my note. Remember to R and R please!  
_-Air Angel_

* * *

**Condemn Me for Eternity**

_Chapter 6 - Imposter_

Miroku had attempted to explain to me about said giant fern plant, but I still didn't fully believe him. A part of me did, after all, there had been a few things I didn't believe in before yesterday that I did now. The other part still didn't fully believe what was going on. Damn old 'logical' mind.

Well, it didn't really matter anymore really. We ended up getting interrupted when all our phones rang at once. Still unaccustomed to now owning one, I just sat there blinking as Inuyasha and Miroku almost instantly picked up their phones while my phone remained ringing in the box.

"Yeah, she's here," I heard Inuyasha say nonchalantly into his phone and a moment later my phone stopped ringing.

They both listened intently and I saw their faces turn a bit more serious. Still lost, I reached over to check my phone when they both snapped theirs closed and stood up.

"Wha-what's going on?"

I grabbed my box as I stood up to follow them out of the room.

"Remember the incident back at that Café you used to work at?"

I nodded but realized a second later that they weren't looking at me, "Yeah I remember, you said my...ex-boss was a satanist."

"Yeah well, it seems that it wasn't exactly his fault about that summoning."

A smile broke out across my face, "I knew it!"

The two of them just looked at me strangely.

"Well I met his girlfriend once and there is no way that a satanist could've been dating a bible-packing girl like her," I stated matter-of-factly.

Inuyasha growled a little but continued walking, "Why didn't you tell us that sooner!"

"I would've but I wasn't so sure, you all seemed confident in your assumption."

Inuyasha seemed to be about to start cursing at me but Miroku cut in, "It would be nice for you to give us any seemingly helpful information from now on, we don't want our records to be incorrect."

"Uh...ok but what are we doing?"

"We're going over to the conference hall for a meeting, there we will be briefed on what we had originally in the reports and why they were incorrect. From there, unless they've already found the true perpetrator or perpetrators," he said, stressing that there could be more than one person...or demon that could've been there, "we'll be sent to investigate the café again to see if we can pick up any clues that we may have missed to find who really made that mess."

"Ah...," we took a right corner and suddenly I was overwhelmed by the sight of green everywhere. The whole hallway was like a jungle.

Miroku pushed some leaves around to make a small path for us to walk through, smiling as turned to speak to me, "Now do you understand what I meant about a big fern plant?"

* * *

Sitting in the plush chairs of conference room 4, I listened confused on what was being discussed. Sango, who had been in the room waiting for us when we had arrived, seemed to sense my distress and whispered me a brief summary which consisted of my ex-boss being under the influence of another in the summoning and in the end being sacrificed, and that no other demonic presence aside from the spider demon had been around so it was either a human or a demon that could mask their aura that had setup the summoning. 

"Kagome, did you see anything out of the ordinary that day? Had there recently been any strange people hanging around the café?"

I looked over at Keade who was seated at the head of the table, "No, most of the costumers at the time of the incident were regulars that had been there since I started working there a year ago."

"I see..."

Feeling at a lose, I racked my brain for any idea that could possibly help them, "Uh...the last shipment of coffee was incorrect, they had sent us some new foreign brand of coffee but we had that returned immediately. Our inventory checks were also wrong, and some glasses and pitchers had gone missing but that probably could be explained by the new klutz of a trainee..."

I froze, didn't I just see Hojo a few hours ago? Why didn't I realize that I had been working with him earlier...and why wasn't he hurt? He had been at the café during the accident, probably cleaning the floor when I went to clean myself. Shouldn't he have been dead then? And if he had survived, why hadn't he asked if I was okay? Why had he seemed like he hadn't seen me since our old class together unless...

I shot forward in my seat, "Kaede, how many survivors were there from the accident and what were their names."

She looked surprised a little, "Only you from when we arrived, if there had been others, they must've escaped just barely before the attack."

No, Hojo couldn't have gotten away then. The main counter where all our equipment had been was in the center of the café. If the costumers sitting near the main entrance hadn't made it, there was no way he could've escaped.

"I think I may have an idea of who we are looking for."

Everyone seemed to be watching me, but I remained undeterred by the attention, "Which rooms had been destroyed from the spider demon?"

"Only the upstairs apartment, the hallway that lead to the main café and main café area."

"Alright, that means that the back office is still intact. Kaede, I uh...need permission to go back to the café to get some files. A single resume to be exact."

"What do you need that for first?"

I bit my lip lightly, "There was a new trainee but he looked exactly like someone I knew, he even took the name of the guy. If I didn't see him earlier, I wouldn't have even thought of him."

"His name?"

"Hojo Akitoki, I had a class last year with him. When we met earlier, he acted as if he hadn't seen me since the end of that class and didn't even mention anything about the café, let alone being there."

"A demon could've taken his form as his own," Sango commented.

Kaede stiffened in her seat, "A shape-shifter perhaps?"

"It's possible," I said, "but why Hojo? Out of everyone in Japan why did it choose Hojo as it's form?"

"Some shape-shifter's disguise themselves so that when you see them, they look like someone you'd know, but to others, they would look differently. We can't be sure though, we'll have to keep an eye on this Hojo guy for awhile just incase," Inuyasha said, "I'm assuming that you want to get a hold of the resume 'Hojo' sent in so we can do some testing on it, just to check if fingerprints match possibly? Or if they show someone else completely."

I nodded.

Inuyasha turned to face Kaede, "I also request permission to go to the café. Had we not gotten this lead, we would've been sent to research the area anyways."

Kaede sat there staring at Inuyasha for a moment, "Request accepted, your team will go and retrieve that resume and any other possible object that may have his fingerprint on it that is still intact. I expect you to report back here tonight by seven with whatever you have gathered. I will organize a separate team to watch over Hojo Akitoki while you are all away."

"Understood."

* * *

By the time we arrived at the café it was six o'clock, leaving us with one hour to gather what we needed. Where the time went earlier from when I finished class to now seemed to have been lost, it really didn't seem like I had been with them for that long but lo and hold, seven hours had passed since I finished my class at eleven and I wasn't even hungry for lunch still. 

The café was cleaned up considerably from when we were here last, all the table and chairs were back into place, aside from the ones that had been broken. The bodies had been cleared out the very night of the accident so there were no rotting faces staring at me today.

I headed towards the back office, Inuyasha following closely behind while Miroku and Sango went over to the main counter to check everything there.

Slowly opening the door, I sighed slightly in relief when nothing jumped out of me and I saw the office just the way I had last, except without my boss chatting on the phone in his reclining chair.

"Filing cabinet?"

I shook my head, "No, Hojo was only recently hired about a week or two ago. Unless they've been here a month without getting fired, Mr. Hanasai keeps trainee information on or in his desk."

Inuyasha nodded and made his way over to the desk and started going through the piles of papers on it. Mr. Hanasai was never good at keeping things organized.

Fifteen minutes later we finally found the resume, it had been folded into a square and a coffee ring indicated that at some point Mr. Hanasai had used it as a coaster. I guess Hojo hadn't met Mr. Hanasai's standards.

We walked back out into the main café area where we saw Sango and Miroku arguing over what seemed to be a coffee grind package, "Please can I have it?"

"No! I told you already, we're suppose to be looking for clues and you want to steal coffee?"

"But it's GOOD coffee!"

"Uh Miroku?" I cut in, "I have a few boxes of that type at home, Mr. Hanasai used to let me have a few boxes of coffee for free once in awhile, or whenever they over shipped us some. You can have one if you want."

His eyes seemed to sparkle and I took a step back, "You will?"

I nodded slowly, not exactly liking his expression. Maybe because the look he was giving off was almost a perfect copy of my friend Eri's expression whenever she saw a billboard or magazine of her latest favorite actor.

He was in front of me so fast that I almost choked in shock, "Thank you so much!" he said pulling me into a hug.

"Miroku...can't...breath!" I gasped out.

Releasing me, he scratched his head, "Sorry about that," he laughed.

"It's...ok," I said slowly as I noticed the deadly look Sango was sending in our direction, "Did you find anything?"

"Nope, this place was cleaned up really well, even the glasses are lined up perfectly," Miroku said motioning for Inuyasha and I to look behind the counter. Everything looked just like it would've right before opening time, not that the café would be opening anytime soon.

"It's only six twenty now, we've got forty minutes until we have to be back. Should we keep checking the place or head back now?" Sango asked, her deadly stare seeming to have vanished.

Inuyasha shrugged, "We got what we came for, why not head back?"

"Let's stay here for another fifteen minutes."

Inuyasha, Sango, and I looked at Miroku questioningly.

"If we wait, by the time we get back we'll have missed the beginning of night shift meaning we'll have the night off."

Inuyasha wacked his head so hard that he bent over and hit his head on the counter top, "You moron, only a slacker like you would come up with something like that."

Sango just shook her head, "Well now that he's unconscious, we'll have to wait for him to wake up. There is no way that I would sit in the back of the car with him like that, who knows what he'd do if he woke up on my lap. I'd rather not experience the thought."

"Keh, there is no way I'm letting you drive my car."

"How long until he usually wakes up?" I asked, looking at Miroku's limp form leaning against the counter.

"Knowing him, he'll stay unconscious for twenty minutes. Just for good measure."

* * *

It was five to seven by the time we got back. We made it just in time to report in and Kaede told us that she had asked for some extra help from another nearby base, as it seemed that there weren't enough people and demons to spare for watching over Hojo at the moment. 

We were to brief the team on the situation tomorrow at four in the afternoon, two hours after they were scheduled to arrive. Formal wear was required as they were a 'special' and a 'highly advanced' group that we were to show our complete respect. Inuyasha had snorted when that had been said but made no comment.

I was also told that my testing would be at three fifteen and that it would last approximately thirty five minutes, leaving me ten minutes to get into my uniform and be in whatever place we were suppose to be. Where we were to go, I had completely missed.

By the time we were finished speaking to Keade again it was seven forty and my stomach had finally caught up on my abused feeding schedule. I tried unsuccessfully to hide the gurgling of my stomach, unsuccessfully because Inuyasha was a demon with very good hearing.

"When was the last time you ate?"

"Uh...probably around eight this morning," I replied sheepishly, gathering up my box I had left here earlier for safe keeping.

He sighed, "Come on," he said pulling me out of the room by my elbow and down the hallway towards the exit, "I'll get you something to eat."

We were stopped as we heard Miroku's voice behind us, "Oh Inuyasha, already going to woe Kagome? I never knew you moved that fast."

"Shut up Miroku, it's not what you are thinking," Inuyasha growled heatedly.

"Whatever you say, just make sure you don't stay up too late. We've got work tomorrow," Miroku winked before walking in the opposite direction, probably following the path that Keade had taken earlier along with Sango, who had went back to acting as her assistant once we had returned.

"Pig," I heard Inuyasha say before he resumed pulling me out of the building.

He pulled me towards his car. Once seated comfortably with my seatbelt on and my box on the back seat, we took off out of the parking lot.

"Where are we going?"

"There's a noodle house nearby, I usually go there after work before heading home."

Blinking, I looked at him, "But you work practically everyday, does that mean that all you eat for dinner is noodles?"

He shook his head, "Actually, our teams gets a day off a week...plus a month total of vacation and sick days."

"Why didn't I know this?" I grumbled, "And here I thought I'd learned everything I needed to know. What day do we get off?"

"We get off Mondays, though they'll probably give you a schedule for everything tomorrow when you get tested."

"What is on the test anyways?" I asked as Inuyasha turned a corner and signaled to parallel park in front of a small restaurant sporting the name 'Sakura Island'.

He shrugged as he shut off the engine and opened the door to get out, "I wouldn't know, it's a miko test and I'm obviously not a miko."

"Right...," I said while following his example of getting out of the car and going into the restaurant, "I don't really understand the miko thing also..."

The door swung open and close quickly, ringing a little chime at the same time, "I'll see what I can tell you once we've ordered."

We took a seat near the front windows and were shortly joined by a waitress, I asked for a glass of water and some ho fun, a Chinese noodle dish that I had once when I had been at a sleep over with Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi. At the time we had ordered it, we had no idea what it was as the take-out menu had no translations. We had been happy when it turned out not to be some strange thing like a pig's head.

Inuyasha simply asked for his usual which the waitress had seemed to already be jotting down before he even opened his mouth.

"So explain the miko thing."

He leaned back in his chair, "From what I know, there are six classes of mikos. I don't know the names but I can explain them a bit. The first class is for those who have power but too low of a degree that it could cause damage and because of that, they usually don't get notified but are kept under watch just incase. On the most part they grow up and go into a medical field because they are slightly gifted in healing."

He stopped talking for a moment but I soon realized why as the waitress reappeared with our drinks, water like I had asked and surprisingly, tea for Inuyasha.

He began again as soon as she disappeared back into the kitchen, "The next four classes are based on what a miko's strong point is. The first of this set is healing. Where a doctor would need to do surgery or give medicine to a patient, a healing miko and focus the energy around her which can, if trained properly, heal a person without any outside force."

"How does that work?"

"I guess you could think of having a cut for example. The power for a healing miko would heal a cut by using their power to speed up the cell growth in the area of injury. The next group is those who have a sixth sense. Predicting the future, no matter how many different ways it can be seen or how early. Maybe a minute before the actual accident or even years."

"So would I be that type...?" I asked, remembering the apartment accident and how I had sensed the demon's approach only a moment before it crashed through the wall.

"A bit," Inuyasha agreed, "But the four categories are intermixed. A miko can have all the attributes of them or only one. It all depends on the person. The third group is for those who can see through spells, prevent them, and even break them. You're part of this group also if you relate it to being about to see through my spell. The last of the set is damage-wise. Where the first three groups are mostly defensive, the last is offense. In this group, much like a healing miko, a miko focuses their powers but instead of healing a person, they could kill them. By touch or by filtering their power into an object, it can still be deadly either way, especially to demons."

"Okay...so what's the last class?"

"The last class is much like the opposite of the first. A miko with too much power who has to be isolated away to keep them from doing damage to anyone or even themselves. There aren't many of this type of miko and they usually die within the first year they are born."

I shifted in my seat, "That's so sad..."

We sat in silence until the waitress appeared again with our meals, I watched as she set down three bowls of different flavored ramen in front of Inuyasha before setting down my ho fun.

"That is your usual?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

He quickly grabbed a pair of chopsticks and began to eat his first bowl, "Mwll mwats ma-"

I held up my hand to stop him before getting a picking up my pair of chopsticks, "Swallow first, talk later...or even just finish eating first," I said watching as just when he was finishing what he had in his mouth already, he put more in. Ah, the joys of eating.

* * *

"Wow you chew like a cow," I had finished my meal and was waiting for Inuyasha to finish his last bowl or ramen. Now, of course, I was picking on his eating habits. 

He just grunted but continued eating.

"Well your not as bad as my Aunt Sayoko, she chews like a camel and my Uncle Rai has an odd, yet unfortunate, fascination with beans."

He swallowed, "Are you trying to make me self-conscious of the way I eat or are you just trying to get me to eat faster," he said more as a statement rather then a question.

"Maybe a little bit of column A and maybe a little bit of column B,"

He grunted again but set his bowl down, "Then you should be happy to know that I'm finished eating, meaning you won't have to watch me chew anymore," he said rolling his eyes.

I was about to speak when the waitress appeared again, "Just as I thought, you just finished," she said while stacking the bowls to make it easier to carry.

"Keh."

She laughed, "And here I thought that maybe because you have company for once, you'd eat a little bit slower."

"Oh," I said, "We work together, I guess you could say I'm his new partner...of some sort."

She pouted a bit, "Really? I thought you might've been his little girlfriend or something. Then again," she said going back to laughing, "With an attitude and eating habits like him, I guess it'd be pretty hard to get one."

"Hey!"

"Sorry, sorry," She apologized but kept on a teasing smile, "Don't worry, you're still a cutey."

I held back a snicker at him being called a 'cutey' but knew that he wouldn't be very happy if I had let it out loud, "Can I get my check?"

"Oh no, I'm not making you pay."

Blinking, I looked at her confused, "Huh?"

"Why would I make you pay if you have to handle working with him from now on starting today?"

"HEY!"

This time I did laugh, "He's not that bad."

"Oh I know," she said ruffling Inuyasha hair a bit, "I just like teasing him. Your meal's on the house also Inu, but that's just because I've been making fun of you in front of your girlfriend here."

He growled, "We're _partners. _What part of that don't you understand?"

"The part where you're eating together."

He sighed, "Come on Kagome, let's go."

Still laughing, I thanked the woman and followed Inuyasha out of the store, not missing the call of "Come again sometime, it's nice seeing Inu not eating by himself!"

I smiled at Inuyasha as I got into his car, "She seems to know you fairly well, Inu."

"Ugh, don't call me that."

"So how did you meet her?" I asked curiosity killing me, I mean...if I couldn't be gifted with the right to call him Inu, she must to pretty close.

"I've known here ever since I moved here as a child," he stated as he started the car and we set off down the road to my house.

"Since you were a child? But you're a demon and she seemed so young!"

"Keh, it's not like she was a _human_."

"She wasn't?"

"Nope, and the only reason why she gets to call me Inu is because that's what she's called me since we met. She's much older then I am."

"Well if you don't like it so much, why don't you ask her to stop?"

"I did once," he said pulling into my apartment entrance, "but the consequences of going against her weren't very nice. Just proves to show that the older you are does make a difference sometimes."

I just laughed, "You probably didn't ask, but demand by force instead."

"Oh shut up, wench."

Ignoring him, I got out of the car and grabbed my box of supplies from the back seat, "Are you picking me up tomorrow?"

"Who knows, Sango is supposed to but it all depends on Kaede. Just be ready ahead of time."

"Ah...Well I'll see you tomorrow!" I said cheerfully.

"Yeah, see ya."

I watched him go out of sight before heading up into my apartment. Tomorrow would be a big day, good thing I had no classes.


	7. Siblings

AN: I hate the summer sometimes. It's always so hot and I always have less energy to do things because of the heat…and I end up sleeping until the afternoon everyday. That means I get less time to do things that I want to do such as try out my new Chinese ink sticks, reading, and writing.

The end of this chapter is a little odd, and may be hard to read but when I listened to it in my mind, I couldn't write it any other way. Any way, here's the next chapter. Please R&R!

_- Air Angel_

* * *

**Condemn me for Eternity**

_Chapter 7 – Siblings_

I woke up early the next day and was all set with my uniform in a shoulder-strap bag by the time I heard my apartment buzzer go off. Heading downstairs, I slipped my ID and seal into the clear photo pockets in my wallet. It was mostly empty anyway, containing a few select photos of my family. Upon reaching the front door I was surprised to see Miroku leaning against his car waiting for me, "Change of plans again?"

"Sango was running late and since I was in the area and on my way over to UCS anyways, I offered to pick you up."

"She really is a busy person isn't she," I stated while heading to the passenger door as he moved away over to the driver's side.

"Yup, She's a real jack-of-all-trades if you asked me. That's why I love her, plus she has a great ass," he said winking before getting in the car.

I opened the passenger and stood stunned for a moment, "Uh, is this suppose to be some kind of sick joke?"

There in the passenger seat was a life-size blow-up doll. Miroku just laughed while reaching over and pulling her…cork almost instantly deflating her, "Nothing to be scared of, it's just a little trick I have to use the high-capacity lane."

Eyeing the seat warily, I slowly got in and buckled up, "So anyone else know you have an obviously disproportioned blow-up doll in your car?"

"Well Inuyasha does, he kind of just shook his head and said he'd sit in the back seat though. She's not really disproportioned is she?"

Raising an eyebrow I looked at him, "That doll probably couldn't fit in a bra unless you didn't fill her up completely, and then it probably would look like she's sagging."

* * *

Shifting uncomfortably, I sat waiting for my test to start but so far, all I had been doing for the last ten minutes was sit while my examiner kneeled a few feet away from me. I had no idea if I was suppose to do something or not. She just stayed there, watching me intently. 

A few more minutes passed before she began to rise and head towards the door. Once gone, I continued to sit there confused until someone else came in and told me it was okay to leave now. Walking out of the room, I followed the signs on the walls until I reached the room where he had said that Sango would be waiting for me when I finished my testing.

Inside Sango sat talking on her cell phone. Looking up from some papers she held in her hand when she heard the door click open, she smiled, "Looks like she's done, we'll be there soon," hanging up, she stood, grabbing my bag which sat on the chair beside her, and walked over to me, "How'd it go?"

"Well…I would tell you but I really don't know what happened myself. She just sat there watching me for what felt like forever then she just suddenly gets up and leaves! I have no idea what is going on at all," I whined taking the bag from her. I hated it when things were happening around me and I didn't know what was going on, particularly if they involved me.

"Ah she was probably just reading your aura."

"Oh god, not that stuff again."

Sango just laughed, "Well it's just a guess, you can tell a lot about people just from their auras just like how demons and tell how strong another demon is just by sensing the others' youki."

"Right…Well what about my results then?"

"Don't worry about it, it's likely that's it's getting filed right now and Keade will have it in her office soon. What we have to worry about is the meeting in three hours."

"Three hours? You mean it's already one o'clock!" I asked shocked.

Glancing at her watch, she nodded, "One o'clock seven minutes and thirty-two seconds."

"Wow time flies fast…"

"It sure does, and we're not even having fun."

I laughed, "Well what do I have to do now?"

"Our schedules should be free for a bit so how about getting some lunch?"

"Lead the way!" I could already feel my stomach growling, "Should we ask the others to join us?"

"Miroku and Inuyasha got stuck on the welcome committee for the new team. I wouldn't suggest going to get them right now."

"Why not?" I asked while following her out of the room and down the hall.

"Well for one thing, Inuyasha is probably going to freak out when he finds out just who exactly is on the team that the sent for…"

"Is it someone who's had a disagreement with Inuyasha?"

"I guess you could call it that... it's his brother who is coming. Well, technically half-brother."

"So it's sibling rivalry?"

"Something like that…" Sango stopped moving for a moment and turned to me, "Whatever you do, don't call them brothers."

"O-okay…"

Her serious expression quickly dissolved into a smile and she directed me out of the building and down the street for some lunch at WacDonalds.

* * *

After our hour lunch break, we went back to UCS to get ready for the meeting. By ready, it meant to change into our uniforms. We went into the changing room of one of the gyms and changed. It didn't take long as it wasn't very complicated thankfully. Slipping back into my shoes, I hoped no one would notice my old runners I was wearing. 

"Isn't it a bit early for us to be all dressed up?" we still had about two hours until the meeting.

"True, but you need to get comfortable being in the uniform. Sometimes the fabric is a bit stiff so it's doesn't feel that great against your skin. I usually suggest washing the uniform first with some softener but I didn't get anytime to tell you that yesterday."

"Its okay, when I still lived with my family we took turns doing the laundry, unfortunately when my grandfather did them, it always seemed like our clothes turned into boards."

"Well, what do you want to do now?"

Sango paused for a moment, "We could go see the guys, but I'm not sure if Inuyasha would be in a good mood yet. I'd give it another hour and even then he'll still be moody until Sesshoumaru leaves."

"So Sesshoumaru is his brother's name?"

"Yeah, do you recognize it or something?"

I shook my head, "No, it's just…now that I think about it, I think I've heard Inuyasha's name before."

"I would assume so, you did meet already," she teased.

"I don't mean it like that," I gave her a small glare while locking my other clothes from earlier in a locker. They were fingerprint coded so I didn't have to worry about a lock, "I think I heard it before I ever even moved here. Back when I still lived with my family."

Sango sat on one of the locker benches and motioned me to sit beside her, "What do you mean? Inuyasha isn't a very common name."

"I know it's strange but I honestly think I have heard it before," I said while slowly sitting down. Where HAD I heard his name from? Sango was right, it wasn't very common and I was sure I had never met Inuyasha before our not-so-welcome introduction a few days back.

"Aha!" Sango jumped up, almost making me topple over from her outburst, "Maybe you heard it from a legend or something! People in myths, folklore and legends tend to not have very common names. I wouldn't be surprised if that's why his name is the way it is, after all, he's probably well in his hundreds by now."

I nodded slowly, "That would make sense, my grandfather was and still is the caretaker of a shrine, he probably told me it in one of his stories. Hey!" I said narrowing my eyes at her curious expression, "Don't even bother asking me about anything, I never really listened to what he said."

"Too bad," her voice obviously laced with disappointment, "It would've been something neat to tell Inuyasha, especially if it were one of those embarrassing ones with morals where the person does something completely stupid."

"I highly doubt it was," I said dryly, "If I remember correctly, it was pretty sad."

"I thought you said you didn't remember."

"I don't, it's just the feeling I'm getting now that I'm actually trying to remember where I heard his name from," suddenly a mischievous smile spread across Sango's face, "What are you thinking?" I asked while narrowing my eyes.

"Oh nothing," she replied sweetly, a tone that made my eyebrow twitch. She was definitely planning something.

"Nothing my ass, tell me now"

She slowly made her way to the doorway, the same smile across her face, "Well, I just wondered what would happen if I told Inuyasha you said you heard his name before."

"And why would that matter?"

"Maybe I'll tell him a few other things as well…"

"Other things?" I asked, standing up and moving towards her before dawning fell on me, "You're going to make something up to embarrass me aren't you!"

She made a small noise sounding similar to the word "busted" before dashing out of the locker room and down the hallway. I stood frozen for a moment before I took chase after her. I knew deep down she probably wouldn't have made up a lie to embarrass me like that and that she was just teasing me, but I couldn't help but try to catch her before she did something, anything, that would embarrass me in front of anyone.

"Na, na, you can't catch me!" she sang while rounding a corner.

"Get back here you!" I shouted after her. Of course, this whole act was pointless. Sango was quick and agile which probably came from all the work from hunting rogue demons in the past where as I… well, I had the record from high school of being fifth . . . from last place in a group of twenty-three. I lost her in less than a minute. After taking a few minutes to catch my breath, I started walking down the hall, following where I had last seen her. Since this was a race, my mind reasoned, she would probably expect to hear my running footsteps, and not my walking ones. That might give me a way to catch her off guard if she were waiting somewhere, having (obviously) lost me behind.

I walked slowly but as normally as I could, however normally would sound for walking. About five minutes later, I was beginning to get irritated; I couldn't get a glimpse of her anywhere. Sighing, I leaned the wall beside the closest doorway. That's when I heard Sango's voice from within the room. Happy I had finally found her, I was about to open the closed door before I heard Miroku's voice from within as well.

"He's still upset," Miroku said calmly inside the room, "It seems that they asked for the wolves' assistance as well."

"The wolves? Are we really so short-handed that we had to ask them for help?" Sango's voice rang clearly.

"As you know the attacks have been increasing."

"Well, they could always send us out; it's not as if we're doing much here at headquarters anyways."

"You say that, but we've still got the last case on our hands and you know the rules, we aren't allowed to take on another mission, unless we have no other missions lined up or our latest mission has been 'completed'."

"They've already called in Sesshoumaru's group to handle the rest though."

"True, but until then after our meeting, we'll have to remain on standby."

"I hate waiting, you never know what's happening outside. . ."

"Just be patient, it's more than likely that the meeting will have Sesshoumaru's group take over, Kouga will be sent to the outskirts as he and his team are well known for their speed, and we'll be sent back out on our regular duties once again."

"Still, it's taking so long," Sango's voice paused for a moment, "And they all know how Inuyasha feels towards Sesshoumaru and Kouga. To have them both called here at once must mean more than they let us know."

"You can't blame them; we aren't the highest up in rank anyways."

"But we're the most efficient group in our section! You'd think they'd have a little more faith in us. Plus we're going to get stuck with a moody Inuyasha for at least a day."

"Why does it seem that this whole conversation keeps revolving around Inuyasha, Sesshoumaru, and Kouga?" I heard Miroku sigh.

"You know how it is every time they come around here. When it's Sesshoumaru, Inuyasha tends to take offence to every little thing he says, even when he makes a valid point. When it's Kouga, they just compete, compete, and compete! What is with dogs? They drove me nuts last time. To have them all here are once, it's going to be a nightmare, especially since Kagome is here now. She's only been here a few days; I don't want her to become traumatized over their acts."

"Well for Kouga, I suppose it really is a dog-demon instinct. He's a wolf and he probably sees Inuyasha like the average domesticated dog, of course he's going to provoke Inuyasha while Inuyasha will take up his fight because he simply is too prideful. For Sesshoumaru, it can't be helped. They are half-brothers after all. Sesshoumaru may be cold, but he is very intelligent. Inuyasha probably hates how his brother always seems to be a step ahead of him. You should know, after all, you have a brother."

The room went quiet for a moment, before Sango responded frostily, "You mean HAD a brother."

"Come on Sango, he may still be alive. They never found his body back in Nagoya."

"They didn't find much of anyone back in Nagoya," she spat back, "after all, majority of the bodies had been turned to ash!"

"Sango I didn't mean to upset you, I was just trying to get you to see-"

"Stop, I don't want to be apart of this conversation anymore. We either talk about something else, or I'm leaving right now. Kagome's probably still looking for me anyways."

I heard some shuffling inside the room, and I decided I probably heard something I shouldn't have. Taking a few silent steps back, I jogged towards the doorway again, this time opening the door, "Sango, are you in here?"

"Kagome, there you are!" she said cheerfully, though it seemed a bit forced.

"You run too fast Sango, how did you expect me to catch up with you!" I accused lightly, did she see through me? Did she know I had heard part of their conversation?

"Sorry, I didn't realize you don't run much. I was going to head back but Miroku popped out of no where and dragged me in here to talk. Inuyasha was driving him crazy, just like I told you would happen."

"Oh, hey Miroku! I didn't notice you," I lied, "How was welcoming the others?" I choose my words carefully in my head, not using Sesshoumaru's name but the word others, hoping, that just maybe, they would tell me this Kouga person now so I wouldn't accidentally slip up later."

"Everything went according to plan, we picked them up and didn't get attacked on the way," he teased, "Though Inuyasha kept complaining the whole time. I assume Sango has told you about Sesshoumaru already. Though you shouldn't have to worry about him that much, it's Kouga who you'll want to stay away from as long as Inuyasha is nearby."

"Kouga?" I asked innocently, "Who's that?"

"He's a wolf demon; he and Inuyasha don't get along very well. They almost act like rivals except their competitions against each other tend to be very violent, and almost always one of them ends up with a hole somewhere."

"Miroku!" Sango scolded, "Don't scare her!"

"Don't worry Sango, I'm sure she can handle this, can't you Kagome?"

I nodded slowly, unsure of how I should answer, "As long as I don't end up with a hole in myself I think I'll be fine."

"See?" Miroku said triumphantly, "She's quite brave. I believe she'll be fine."

Sango walked over to me, "Just stay away if they start arguing, I don't want you to get hurt over something petty."

"Petty?"

She nodded, "Almost every fight they have is over something completely ridiculous. Once they fought over who had to do a mission. Kouga used to work at this base before he and his team were moved over to Hokkaido. Back on topic though, it was originally sent to us to do, but Kouga tried to take over saying that he could get the mission done in one quarter of the time it would take for Inuyasha to do it. This, of course, pissed off Inuyasha."

"You only complain because while they were arguing, you and I left to do the mission without them, it was stressful, and they were still arguing by the time we got back," Miroku added.

"Who wouldn't complain? There were three attacks in one area, three of them! We had to get it all under control before there were increased casualties! There can be only so many people killed before they start noticing things out of the ordinary and we can't cover it up anymore."

"Sango," I said grabbing her attention from her complaining to Miroku, "Do you mean that whenever someone dies in an attack, their family isn't told the truth why they died?"

She winced, "I wouldn't say it'd be a complete lie. Most of the time we tell them that they were attacked, which is true, but we can't just go out and tell them that their bodies were half eaten by a youkai, they would become paranoid or think we're crazy and try to do something probably drastic."

"It's just, it's sad," I whispered quietly, "There are a lot of people whose lives change when someone close to them has died, aren't you worried that those people still alive might take it upon themselves to try to right something anyways?"

"There are times where the family wants to see the killer, sometimes we negotiate with the police to have it set up that another recent human murderer take the blame."

"So you lie to them again?" I shouted angrily, "And you place the blame on another person who had nothing to do with the death!"

"It's not like they weren't in jail for killing someone else!" Sango sighed exasperated, "Look, I know it may seem morally incorrect to do what we do, but what else CAN we do? If you'd like, you can say it's our fault for not making it in time to save them!"

Casting my eyes away to the floor, it became silent. She was right, what could we do? If we were to tell them, we'd be probably branded as liars or mentally unstable. On the off chance they did believe us, we'd create more problems and possibly tip the already tilting balance of our lives as it was, "I understand but a part of me still doesn't agree with what you've done."

"It's okay, it's the way you were brought up," Miroku said placing a hand on my shoulder, "In school's they teach you that lying and fighting is wrong, that you should be honest and peaceful but if you think about it, as long as two people are alive, there will be arguments and possibly lies being told to each other. It's not wrong to wish for a peaceful life but I would be lying if I told you it would be easy to obtain."

"He's right; the world right now is having many drastic changes. Wars between humans are bad enough, wars between youkai are even worse. That's why we're here," Sango said smiling softly, almost forgivingly.

"Why ARE we here?" I asked. I thought I knew but now I didn't. Maybe I hadn't known at all to begin with.

"We're here to make it so that the dream of a calm and peaceful life can at least be obtained by a few. It's the lives of those who want that life we try to protect as well as we can."

My mind began to wander and suddenly an image flashed in my mind. One were Souta was a mangled heap on the ground, lying in a puddle of blood. Would I really want to know that a youkai had been trying to devour him? No, I thought, I wouldn't.

Feeling ashamed of myself, I began to understand a bit more than before. That these people may have gone out and killed many youkai, lied to families whom lost loved ones to those youkai, and left people unknowingly in danger at times; but they still were just like any other person. They were trying their best, and trying to protect the lives of others so that they wouldn't have to experience the lose that death brought as well.

I closed my eyes and said the only thing I could, "I'm sorry."

They both smiled lightly, "You're forgiven."

My eyes began to tear up and I choked back a sob. Sango moved quickly over to me and pulled me into a hug. It was comforting but it didn't make my tears go away.


End file.
